The PMA Effect

by John Joseph

Don’t make assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions and express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama—just this one agreement can completely transform your life.

It can wait. It can all wait. Unplug, people! Experience life. Have conversations. Dig people’s vibes. That’s not hippie shit but happy shit. That’s PMA in action.

If self-esteem is the bright side of risk, fear and failure are the dark, shadowy side.

My life changed dramatically when I started to inject the principle of gratitude into my daily practice, when I saw everything as a gift and gave thanks for it.

So be grateful for everything, even the bad stuff.

Practice an attitude of gratitude.

“Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habit. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.” —Lao Tzu

These days, I do what my friend does when someone is talking trash about somebody else—try to change the topic. If that doesn’t work, I walk away. Gossip is almost always an expression of envy.

The point of the story is that confidence comes from practice, determination, and a never-back-down will and persistence to improve.

Resilience keeps us flexible, young, on our toes, able to tackle new obstacles with enthusiasm.

I will never forget what one older woman told me when I was a kid: “When you laugh, the whole world laughs with you, and when you cry, you cry alone.”

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” —Henry David Thoreau

Always seek out and make friends with people who also have the ability to dream and who are going for it.

You have to be committed to moving forward constantly, moving in the direction of your dreams with unrelenting courage.

In his science fiction novel Dune, Frank Herbert creates a mantra to conquer fear: “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

Have you ever watched the motivational speaker, the late Dr. Wayne Dyer, give a talk? I have. I loved that guy.

When I don’t go after my dreams, when I ignore them, I’m constantly disturbed. It’s me giving into resistance. I can never be happy by doing that.

Rituals enhance people’s confidence in their abilities, motivate them to greater efforts, and improve performance.

Don’t think you can go it alone in life. You can’t. The pressures of the day-to-day bullshit will snap you like a twig. Develop friendships and work in teams.

Regulating your eating and sleeping is essential. When you do, your body will work like a well-oiled machine.

It’s calm before sunrise (the Vedas call those early hours the brahma-muhurta).

As it’s said, “When you take one step toward Krishna [or your path], Krishna takes a thousand steps toward you.”

On that note I’ll leave you with this verse from the timeless Bhagavad-gita As It Is, along with the purport written by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. It’s from the second chapter, “Contents of the Gita Summarized,” text 69. I’ve included the Sanskrit transliteration: ya nisha sarva-bhutanam tasyam jagarti samyami yasyam jagrati bhutani sa nisha pashyato muneh “What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage.”

If you want to be like great men, you do what great men do and you do it daily. You don’t make excuses; you get it done.

Philosopher George Santayana writes that if you don’t remember your past, you’re doomed to repeat it.

throwing them a beating, practice one of the Four Agreements: don’t take things personally. Their smack talk is their poison. It can only affect you if you let it. These days I’m like, “Let the bullets fly, fuckers. I can take anything you can fire at me.”

It’s not your job to dish out the karma. Everyone gets exactly what they deserve in this life and the next.

The point I’m making here is that when your Higher Power sees you’re willing to invest sweat equity, things manifest.

“Every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.” —Napoleon Hill

So if you’re dealing with adversity, welcome the ride and do what it takes to work through it.

No matter how fast you move, your mind will move faster. You can’t leave it behind. It will haunt you.

We say “My mind,” right? In 1981, when I started my yoga practice, I attended the Integral Yoga Institute. Before each class the teachers instructed us to do this chant: “Not the body, not the mind, eternal self I am.”

Setting goals and prioritizing them comes down to time and circumstance. Which ones do I need in the moment?

The medieval bhakti text Sri Upadeshamrita, translated as The Nectar of Instruction, notes that one of the qualities of spiritual practitioners is that they’re willing to reveal their minds in confidence—they accept help. Never try to go it alone, because you’ll lose that fight.

“We miss 100 percent of the shots we never take.” —Wayne Gretzky

I will go one step further and say that success favors the brave.

If you feel life is passing you by while others are succeeding, time to wake your inner wolf.

Make Others Happy

The more we give, the more we get.

Remember the quote from Bhagavad-gita As It Is? We have a right to the work, but we are not entitled to the results.

Holocaust survivor Dr. Viktor Frankl writes, “He who has a why can bear any how.”

When we’re connected to something larger than ourselves, it gives us a sense of immortality.

So find your calling, your higher cause,

and stick with it. Keep it in the center of your day. Be all about it. Be all in.

The work is, as it says in bhakti philosophy, about removing anarthas, unwanted things, or, literally, things that work against your self-interest.

So if you want real enlightenment, which we all do, although only some know it, it’ll require sobriety.

I owe everything to those who have educated me, especially my guru, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who instructed me in atma-tattva—the science of the self.

He also told me that Vedic knowledge is meant to deliver us from the suffering and contamination of our connection to matter.

If you want to have your mind completely blown, do yourself a favor and read the first ten verses of the Sec...

To quote author Shannon L. Alder, “Accomplishments don’t erase shame, hatred, cruelty, silence, ignorance, discrimination, low self-esteem, or immorality. It covers it up, with a creative version of pride and ego. Only restitution, forgiving yourself and others, compassion, repentance, and living with dignity will ever erase the past.”